Surrey Theatre

The Surrey Theatre began in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy on Blackfriars Road in Southwark, just south of the Thames. Charles Dibdin and Charles Hughes opened it with acts that mixed horsemanship and drama. Children first performed there, trained as future actors. The theatre staged animal spectacles, including a real stag-hunt and the dog act Gelert and Victor. John Palmer managed the place until legal trouble sent him to Horsemonger Lane Gaol. Robert Elliston rebuilt the burned-down building in 1806 and turned it into the Surrey Theatre. To satisfy the law he added ballet music to Shakespeare plays like Macbeth and Hamlet. Fanny Fitzwilliam and Sally Brook later starred in melodramas. Douglas Jerrold’s Black-Eyed Susan ran for over 300 nights in 1829, a huge success. Ira Aldridge, the first successful black actor, appeared here in the 1840s. The final building opened in 1865 with four tiers seating 2,161 people. George Conquest ran melodramas and pantomimes until 1901. During the war it hosted the Fairbairn Opera Company. Later it became a music hall, then a cinema, and closed in 1924. The site now holds modern flats, but the theatre’s stage once echoed with Dickens dramas and transpontine melodrama.